new paper on three African abelisauroids

[Jose Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca <jigruiz@unizar.es>]

Sorry if this has been posted:

Paul C. Sereno, Jeffrey A. Wilson, Jack L. Conrad

New dinosaurs link southern landmasses in the Mid-Cretaceous

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Proceedings: Biological Sciences
ISSN: 0962-8452 (Paper) 1471-2954 (Online)
Issue: FirstCite

Abstract:


Abelisauroid predators have been recorded almost exclusively from South 
America, India and Madagascar, a distribution thought to document persistent 
land connections exclusive of Africa. Here, we report fossils from three 
stratigraphic levels in the Cretaceous of Niger that provide definitive 
evidence that abelisauroid dinosaurs and their immediate antecedents were also 
present on Africa. The fossils include an immediate abelisauroid antecedent of 
Early Cretaceous age (ca. 130-110 Myr ago), early members of the two 
abelisauroid subgroups (Noasauridae, Abelisauridae) of Mid-Cretaceous age (ca. 
110 Myr ago) and a hornless abelisaurid skull of early Late Cretaceous age (ca. 
95 Myr ago). Together, these fossils fill in the early history of the 
abelisauroid radiation and provide key evidence for continued faunal exchange 
among Gondwanan landmasses until the end of the Early Cretaceous (ca. 100 Myr 
ago).

Keywords:

Cretaceous, biogeography, dinosaur, ceratosaur, abelisauroid
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Jose Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca
Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra
Area de Paleontologia
Universidad de Zaragoza
E-50009 ZARAGOZA, SPAIN

tel: (+34) 976 761000 ext. 3160
fax: (+34) 976 761106
e-mail: jigruiz@unizar.es
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